I received my BSc (Hons) in 1983 (University of Sydney) and my PhD in 1989 (Macquarie University and CSIRO). My PhD studies involved studying the role of chromosomal proteins in regulating transcription. Was awarded a NIH Fogarty Fellowship and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Rochester in the US where I developed an in vitro chromatin assembly to study how chromatin contributes to and regulates the gene activation process. Returned to Australia and established my own laboratory at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the ANU. The aim of my group is to understand and link chromatin structure with its role in controlling the differentiation process by studying histone variants. Currently the head of the Genome Biology Department.